Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

36 First Steps into Space: Projects Mercury and Gemini
may have been the best bargain ever in human spaceflight, in no small measure
because its goals were so simple. Although lagging behind the original schedule,
it had succeeded in proving the possibility of safe human space exploration and in
demonstrating to the world U.S. technological competence during the Cold War
rivalry with the Soviet Union. At the conclusion of the Mercury effort, Walter C.
Williams noted that “in the period of about 45 months of activity, some 25 flights
were made which was an activity of a major flight in something less than every 2
months.” He then commented on what NASA learned in the context of completing
Mercury:
I think we learned . . . a lot about spacecraft technology and how a
spacecraft should be built, what its systems should be, how they should
perform, where the critical redundancies are that are required. I think
we learned something about man-rating boosters, how to take a weapons
system development and turn it into a manned transportation system. I
think, in this area, we found primarily, in a nutshell, that this was a matter
of providing a malfunction detection system or an abort system, and,
also, we found very careful attention to detail as far as quality control was
concerned. I think that some of the less obvious things we learned—we
learned how to plan these missions and this takes a lot of detail work,
because it’s not only planning how it goes, but how it doesn’t go, and the
abort cases and the emergency cases always took a lot more effort than
the planned missions. . . . We learned what is important in training crews
for missions of this type. When the crew-training program was laid down,
the program had to cover the entire gamut because we weren’t quite sure
exactly what these people needed to carry out the missions. I think we have
a much better focus on this now. We learned how to control these flights in
real time. This was a new concept on a worldwide basis. I think we learned,
and when I say we, I’m talking of this as a National asset, not NASA alone,
we learned how to operate the world network in real time and keep it up.
And I think we learned a lot in how to manage development programs of
this kind and to manage operations of this kind (I-47). 115
As Christopher C. Kraft, senior flight controller, concluded, Mercury “changed
quite a few concepts about space, added greatly to our knowledge of the universe
around us, and demonstrated that Man has a proper role in exploring it. There
are many unknowns that lie ahead, but we are reassured because we are confident
in overcoming them by using Man’s capabilities to the fullest” (I-48). 116
115. Dr. Walter C. Williams, Deputy Director, NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, NASA, “Project
Review,” 3 October 1963. Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History
Division, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.
116. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., “A Review of Knowledge Acquired from the First Manned
Satellite Program.” Folder 18674, NASA Historical Reference Collection, NASA History Division,
NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC.